Historical redlining tied to higher obesity prevalence through lack of food access
Key takeaways:
- Redlining and lower food access were directly associated with higher obesity prevalence.
- Specifically, redlining was linked to higher obesity prevalence through lack of food access.
SAN ANTONIO — Structural racism, as measured by historical redlining, was tied to a higher prevalence of obesity by reducing food access for people from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, according to a presentation at ObesityWeek.
“Obesity is a major concern in the U.S. Currently, we’re at one in five children and two in five adults, with quite big differences across the U.S.,” Rebekah J. Walker, PhD, associate professor and chief of the division of population health in the department of medicine at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, said during the presentation. “Evidence suggests that social determinants account for 30% to 55% of health outcomes. It also suggests that it’s a critical path to understand the root cause for health disparities, and focusing on these areas can help us look at that.”
Walker and colleagues combined census tract data to analyze 11,457 census tracts across 201 counties within 38 states. Researchers defined historical redlining using the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation residential security maps from the Mapping Inequality project, with higher scores denoting more redlining, and defined food access using the modified retail food environment index for each census tract as the number of healthy food retailers divided by the number of all food retailers, with higher scores denoting better access.
Mean obesity prevalence was 31.8%. Both redlining and lower food access were directly associated with higher obesity prevalence (P < .001 for both). Specifically, redlining was associated with obesity prevalence through lack of food access (P < .001).
“Multilevel interventions that combine both nutrition education at the individual level and modification of the food environment are needed with this food access measure being measured at a neighborhood level that’s not an individual access-level to food access,” Walker said. “Interventions that address underlying poverty at an individual and community level could help mitigate the impact of structural racism on obesity prevalence and structural factors are generally outside of the control of an individual, so as such, using policy intervention that can account for the lived experience of community members will be important in mitigating this relationship.”
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Walker RJ. Oral-063. Presented at: ObesityWeek; Nov. 3-6, 2024; San Antonio.
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